Drugged Out Tim
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: While on patrol, Tim gets sprayed with an unknown substance, which makes him highly unpredictable. NOTE: Thanks to the Julia for pointing out my title error. I post things really late at night, and totally didn't notice.
1. Chapter 1

Jason wasn't exactly sure how he ended up with a crying Tim in his arms, nor was he sure what to do with said Tim. He knew the tears were caused by whatever chemicals had been sprayed in Tim's face during his patrol. They had crossed paths, and decided to work together for once. Thinking back on it, that should have been a sure sign that everything was going to go to hell. When Jason had managed to get back to his apartment with the drugged former Robin he was expecting some awful reaction from the unknown substance, but Jason wasn't expecting this. He didn't know _what _to do with this.

As far as he knew, Tim didn't cry...ever. This was completely new territory. Jason was afraid of what would happen if he didn't find some kind of antidote to whatever the hell the kid had been sprayed with, but he couldn't get Tim to let him go. The moment they stepped through Jason's window, Tim had latched onto him with a death grip that Jason couldn't get free from, even if he was willing to knock Tim out to do it.

The worst part was, Tim didn't say anything...just cried. Jason tried talking to him. At first he had tried to get Tim to let him go, and then, when that proved to be futile, he tried to get Tim to tell him what exactly the chemicals were doing to him that reduced him to tears, but nothing.

Jason thought it was creepy as hell, too, that not only did Tim not speak, but he didn't make a sound. There was no sobbing, no hitched breathing, no sudden sniffling...nothing. He just clung to Jason and cried.

Jason had one arm wrapped around the kid's shoulders, while his other hand clenched the bed. He sat there quietly while he counted the minutes. Surely, Tim would cry himself to sleep sooner or later, and then Jason could get to work on trying to figure out what the hell the kid had been dosed with. Unfortunately, it had been an hour, and the crying hadn't let up.

Jason tried to get Tim to stop...tried to get him to lay down...tried to get him to do something to help himself out of this situation, but still nothing. It was getting to the point that Jason was ready to call Dick and make him deal with this mess. Surely, Dick had dealt with a crying or emotional Tim far more than Jason had, right? After all, even when Jason tried to kill Tim, he never let the indifferent or pissed off mask falter. But Dick? Dick was his big brother-Tim's idol and all that-so Dick had to be used to this kind of thing...at least Jason hoped he was.

When Jason reached for his cell, however, Tim grabbed at it, and threw it across the room. Jason thought about just knocking Tim out, but he wasn't sure that was a good idea with whatever was coursing through his blood stream, and really it wasn't like the kid was being violent. Creepy and emotional, yes; but violent, no.

So Jason held him, and let him cry. It wasn't like Jason had anywhere to go or anything to do anyway, but he was starting to wonder if the entire point of the chemicals were to force someone to cry themselves into dehydration, because that sure as hell was a lot of tears with no end in sight.

Jason sat there for another 20 minutes trying to think of something, but before he could come up with a better plan than knock Tim out and hand him over to Dick, Tim forcefully let go of Jason. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Jason wasn't sure why he was being asked that question. After all, it was Tim who had sat here for over an hour crying.

"Um...," was all Jason got the chance to mutter before there were tears running down Tim's face again.

"Knock me out already. I want this to stop. I need this to stop." Jason just stared at Tim for a moment. He didn't think he'd ever be getting the angry 'how dare you' expression for NOT knocking Tim out. "What is taking you so long? Are you enjoying this? What? You finally get to see me as an emotional wreck, so now you feel better. You're not the only Bat with too many issues to deal with and you're just soaking up the lack of control here."

Jason didn't understand where the anger was coming from, and he didn't even really understand most of the accusations. Tim had suddenly gone from crying mess to angry crying mess, and this was literally the most emotion Jason had ever seen from the kid. He didn't honestly think it was fair for Tim to expect him to be able to cope with this.

"I...I don't know if knocking you out is the best option here, Timmy."

Tim glared at him harshly. "Don't call me that, and just knock me the hell out. I don't care what happens after that. I can't be like this anymore."

"What do you mean you can't be like this anymore? Are you honestly telling me that you can't be emotional?" Jason didn't think provoking the kid was the best option, but if it stopped the tears, he was willing to get Tim as angry as possible.

Tim growled at him like a wild animal. "Stop analyzing me, and just knock me out before I string you up by your ears, Jason."

Jason raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought I was the one against being psychoanalyzed. Maybe I should just let the chemicals in your system run their course, and see what you're so afraid of. Maybe I'll finally see the real Tim for once."

Tim glared at him for a moment before getting up. "I don't need you, Jason. I can easily get out of here, and knock myself out."

Jason stared at him in disbelief. "I thought I was the reckless Robin, Timmy. What the hell is your problem."

Tim's eyes narrowed at that. "I'd rather be dead than be your entertainment for the night, Jason."

"Look, I have no idea what the hell is in your system right now. How the hell am I supposed to know if knocking you out leads to a fucking coma or not?"

"Run tests, moron."

Jason was getting increasingly more annoyed by the minute, but let it go in favor of using logic...after all, Tim liked logic. "Yeah, cute...in case you hadn't noticed, you wouldn't even let me get near my med kit...not alone..."

Tim cut Jason off before he could even finish his sentence. "Yeah, well, I'm letting you now."

Jason went to get a syringe to take a blood sample and figure out what the hell Tim was hopped up on, but before he could slip the needle into Tim's skin the kid grabbed it, and jabbed it into Jason's neck. "What the fuck?" Jason pulled the needle from his jugular, and tossed it across the room, but before he could get to his feet Tim kicked him in the face, sending Jason sprawling across the floor. Jason scrambled to his feet, but it was too late. Tim was already out of the window.

Jason, however, had no intention of dealing with a drugged out Tim on his own. He searched his surroundings for the cellphone Tim had tossed away earlier and called Dick. "Your little brother is one serious pain in the ass, you know that?" He spoke as he checked his face for blood. His nose wasn't broken, which Jason guessed was something.

"Jason? What? What happened? What did you do to Tim?" Dick's concern was evident from his tone.

Jason ground his teeth together, but tried to keep his temper under control. It wasn't as though he didn't understand why they always assumed it was his fault, but that didn't mean that it still didn't piss him off, all the same. "He got sprayed with some unknown substance while we were checking out a warehouse. Unfortunately, the warehouse burst into flames shortly there after, so there's no samples of the stuff left...except for what's running through his system right now."

"You honestly expect me to believe that the two of you were working together?"

Jason growled into the phone. This conversation was lasting far longer than he wanted it to. "Look, Dickie-bird, I don't give a damn about what you believe. The kid that you like to refer to as your little brother is out running around hopped up on some crazy unknown substance, which is making him highly unpredictable and fucking insane, but if that's not important enough for you to give a damn about that's your problem."

Dick sighed into the phone. "I guess it's too much to ask that all of his tracers on still on him, right?"

Jason thought about it for a moment. "Honestly, I don't know. He might have ditched them after he stabbed me in the neck with a fucking syringe."

"He did what?" Dick sounded truly shocked at the prospect-although, Jason wasn't sure why.

"Yeah, sweet kid you got there. I was just trying to take a blood sample."

"And you have no idea which crazy we're probably dealing with here?"

"No, there wasn't anything obvious connecting the stuff to any of the major crazies, for all I know, it could have been some idiot getting a little too creative with his chemistry set."

Dick sighed again. "Helpful."

Jason's anger was flaring up again. One day he would understand why everything involving one of the Bats was always so damn complicated. He was almost longing to deal with Bruce, at least it would certainly cut down on the amount of talking. "Look, golden boy, if you want to take a syringe to the jugular, be my guest. Personally, I think you should just be happy that I didn't shoot the kid."

"I'm sure Tim didn't mean it." Dick sounded like he was trying to defend Tim and sate Jason all at the same time.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure it fucking hurt. Now, can we stop with the chitchat? You have a little bird to go track down, and I have other shit to do."

"You aren't going to help me find him?" Dick sounded truly affronted.

Jason wasn't sure if he should be angry or amused by Dick's outrage. "I told you about the kid's condition, I didn't shoot him, and I'm not frickin' Lassie. As far as I'm concerned, I've done enough good deeds for one day."

"Come on, Jason, you have to help me."

Jason huffed out a laugh at that. "I don't have to do shit, Dickie-bird. Have fun finding the kid." He was just about to hang up, but before he could, Dick's voice stopped him. "What was that?" Jason growled out.

"I'll have Alfred come to your new place."

Jason paused for a moment to consider that. "What the hell kind of threat is that?"

Dick scoffed into the phone. "Please, like you really want Alfred over at your place, tidying everything up, and commenting on everything. You know he'll force you to get a teapot, and then he'll make regular visits, and expect you to act like the boy he helped raise...at least while he's there. Plus, no one is better at the guilt trips than Alfred."

Jason glared, even though Dick couldn't see it. "You wouldn't dare." 

He could tell that Dick was smirking evilly just from his tone. "Of course, I would, so the only real question left is, are you going to help me find Tim or not?"

"Meet me near the docks in 15 minutes." Jason growled into the phone, and then hung up. He couldn't believe he was so easily blackmailed into this, but as Jason grabbed his leather jacket and headed out his window, he guessed he should have expected as much when he called Dick.

The End (for now)


	2. Chapter 2

Jason shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his leather jacket as he huffed out a breath. It was cold enough that he could see his breath, and he was getting sick of waiting. Hell, he didn't even know why he was here. Surely, the Alfred threat wasn't so dire that he couldn't deal with it, and yet, here he was freezing his butt off for the replacement. Sometimes his life made no sense...even to him. Jason was just about to turn and leave when he heard the scuff of boots behind him. "You're late."

Nightwing stepped out of the shadows fully. "Sorry, had to stop a few muggings along the way. Did you leave the guns at home?"

Jason was actually surprised and annoyed that it was the first question out of Dickie-bird's mouth. "No, why the hell would I?"

Dick folded his arms over his chest, and tried to look as imposing as possible. "I'm not working with you unless you lose the guns."

Jason honestly couldn't believe this bullshit. "Look, idiot, you're the one with the brat to find...not me, so shove it. I've been down right pleasant up until this point, so fuck off."

Dick glared at him menacingly. "You're going to help me find Tim, since you're the one who let him escape while he was under the influence of an unknown substance."

Jason balled his hands into fists. "Oh, right, 'cause it's my fault that he stabbed me in the neck."

"It's your fault for not following protocol. If you knew he had been exposed to something, you should have sedated him and worked from there."

"I told you that I didn't fucking know if sedating him was the best option." Jason growled out. "He was crying, and it didn't look like any reaction to any of chemicals that we know of."

Dick stared at him blankly for a few moments, but Jason could see when his facial expression softened, before Dick visibly steeled himself again. "None of that's the point, Jason. I won't work with you as long as you're carrying those." He gestured to Jason's guns. "So, lose them."

Jason growled as he tore one of his guns from the holster. All he really wanted to do was punch Dick until he was bleeding. "I'm doing you a fucking favor, Dickie. The least you can do is..."

"Now, Jason."

Jason rolled his eyes as he tossed the guns away. It was just easier than listening to Dick whine all night. "Just remember, Dickie-bird. There are other ways to kill people."

"I know." Dick visibly checked him for more guns, and once he was satisfied that there weren't any, he continued. "Now, what do we have to go on?"

Jason tampered down on his anger enough to answer Dick's question. "Not a lot. There wasn't any sign of him after he left my apartment. I asked a few of my contacts along the way here if they'd seen Red Robin tonight, but so far there's been nothing. Did you check his tracers?"

Dick nodded once. "Yeah, I've got multiple hits scattered around the city, and in no logical order that I can decipher."

Jason sighed as he rolled his eyes. Why couldn't anything be easy? "So, we've got nothing-absolutely nothing-to go on."

Dick shrugged and handed him a palm computer. "It's set to follow the tracers. Maybe we can at least find the direction he was heading, based off of where they are."

Jason glared at the screen intently. This was not how he wanted to spend his night. "Tell you what, you stick with that, and I'll do this my way."

Dick glared at him from behind the mask. "Is that Jason speak for going to a bar?"

Jason handed him back the palm computer. "Hey, I get plenty of intel from bars."

Dick rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Jason sighed. Clearly, he wasn't getting out of this so easily. Not that he really expected to. "Fine, can you at least give me places around the city that he likes to frequent?"

"Well, dressed as Red Robin, pretty much the worse the place, the better; but that's standard for all of us."

"Great, I'll check the seedier neighborhoods while you hit the places he likes to go out of costume. Call if you find anything." Jason didn't give Dick a chance to argue before he shot off a line.

It was going to be a long night. Jason knew that, but at least he'd be able to kick some faces in along the way. It was probably the only upside to this whole ordeal. He was just getting done with some lowlife gang banger when he started hearing whimpers. He looked around to check if someone was still awake, but all of the guys he took down were out for the count-and still breathing just to make Dickie-bird happy. Jason pulled one of his knives from the leg of a guy whom he had just taken out, when he realized that the whimpering cries were coming from above him. He scaled the fire escape, and made his way to the roof.

"Shit." He breathed out in a harsh whisper. He found Red Robin curled on his side, shaking, and half out of his mind. There was sweat dripping down his face, and his entire body was convulsing. "Hey, kid, it's me. Try not to stab me this time, eh?" Tim wasn't responsive, and it was clear that he'd been out in the cold too long. Who knew how long he'd been curled up on this rooftop? Jason tried to get Tim to look at him...to focus even a little, but nothing worked. It was as if he didn't even register that Jason was there. This time Jason didn't worry about whatever the sedative might do to him. Instead, he just gassed the kid, and called Dick.

"I found him, but you're not going to like the state that he's in."

"Meet me at the cave," was all that Dick said before cutting the connection.

Jason sighed to himself as he hauled Tim into his arms. "You are so not worth it, just so you know." He took off in the direction of the cave, not revelling in the idea of carrying him all the way back to cave. "Yeah, so not worth it."

The End (for now)


	3. Chapter 3

Running blood tests was a long and boring process, and the way that Dick kept staring at him as though none of the information made any sense wasn't helping Jason's mood any. Tim was still out cold, so Jason counted himself lucky, for that, at least. They had already started treating him for hypothermia, and, with Alfred's help, they had managed to get Tim's convulsions under control while they flushed his system. He still looked too pale, but Jason was starting to get the impression that the kid always looked that way. "I'm getting the feeling from your expression that we're not up against some small time thug just messing around with chemicals in his basement, are we?"

Dick glanced up from the paper he had been previously glaring at. "I...I don't know. This doesn't make any sense."

Jason had already assumed as much, but he figured that he would indulge and ask the obvious question anyway. "Okay, what exactly doesn't make any sense?"

Dick grabbed his head and began to massage his temples. "It's a combination of Bane's venom and something else. I don't know what yet, but I can't figure out why it didn't kill him. The combination of chemicals on this sheet alone," Dick shook a piece of paper in the air, "should have been fatal unless Tim happened to have something else in his system that counteracted the chemicals when he got doused, I don't see how it's possible that he survived."

Jason wasn't exactly expecting that one. "Okay, so what if the other chemicals that we haven't identified yet were meant as some type of stabilizer?"

Dick just shrugged. "I don't know. This is more Tim's expertise, but if that's the case then that means someone is making this stuff from scratch for some reason. I just don't know why. I mean, besides the obvious aggression, what other side-effects did Tim exhibit?"

"I don't know. He was just creepy. He was crying and just...weird."

Dick's brow furrowed at that. "Tim was crying, and you didn't think that warranted being mentioned?"

Jason glared at him. "I did mention it. You seemed more focused on my guns."

Dick sighed. "Okay, fine, what else?"

Jason shook his head. "I don't know. There wasn't really anything else. One minute he was fine, the next he was crying, then he was fighting. I got him calmed enough that he said he was going to let me take a blood sample, but the moment that I moved to slide the needle in, he fucking attacked me."

Dick stared down at the printouts in front of him again as if they held all of the answers. "Okay, so we know that the increased aggression can be attributed to the venom. One of us is going to have to keep watch and keep trying to flush his system while the other tries to identify the other chemicals and what they do. I don't want to just let this stuff run it's course. I mean, who the hell knows what the end game is here or what other side effects this stuff could induce?"

Jason just nodded. He kind of had a feeling that's where this was going. "Fine, you go watch over baby bird, while I start comparing the substances to everything we have on file."

As far as Jason was concerned, Dick was far too willing to let him take over the search, and he wasn't so sure it was just due to Dick's distress over Tim's condition. Either way, Jason was just happy to not have to deal with either of them. Research was never his favorite part of the job, but it was better than looking at Dick's sad, pathetic, hurt puppy dog eyes.

Four hours in front of the computer, running analysis on every substance they had ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and Jason was beginning to envision himself blowing up half of the cave just to alleviate the stress. He searched though all of the usual suspects first. Every chemical Joker, Harley, and the Scarecrow had ever been known to use. He was now going through all of their files on Poison Ivy, but the woman had a serious fascination with using multiple types of plants to create extremely obnoxious concoctions. Jason was starting to get frustrated with the sheer number of things she had created using different parts of the same plants. He was beginning to think that, by the time he finished with her file, Tim might actually be well enough to just figure this out on his own.

Two more hours and Jason had managed to identify two out of the six substances that they hadn't recognized. They were both things that Ivy liked to use, which was enough for Jason to want to go track her down and have a conversation with her, but Dick was being obstinate. He was convinced that it wasn't enough to automatically assume that Ivy had anything to do with it, and, while Jason agreed, he figured it couldn't hurt to just go ask her about it. At the very least, she could tell them where someone could get their hands on two extremely rare and endangered plants.

Jason pushed away from the computer to face Dick. "Look, all I'm saying is that Ivy may be able to tell us more than we can gather from just sitting here in front of a computer screen."

Dick rolled his eyes at him. "I think it's better if we identify all of the substances before we assume she has something to do with this."

"Right, because this is really going well."

Dick sighed again. "If you're going to be this rash, then why didn't you just run off and go track down Bane the moment that I mentioned his venom."

Jason glared at him as though it should be obvious. "Because Bane doesn't share his venom, which means someone got their hands on it through some less than honorable means. And, Ivy is a hell of a lot easier to track down."

Dick shook his head as he checked Tim's vitals again."I don't know what's more frustrating. The fact that you thought ahead enough to reach that conclusion or the fact that, even after everything, you're still willing to run off unprepared."

Jason's glare only intensified as he folded his arms across his chest. "And why are you so sure that she has nothing to do with this, Dick?"

"I didn't say that. It's just..."

"Just what? Exactly where else do you think people get extremely rare, endangered plants in Gotham?" Jason was growing tired of this fight and he could feel his temper flaring again.

Dick rolled his eyes again. "It's called illegal trading of rich and varied plant life for a reason, Jason."

Jason threw up his hands in the air out of frustration at that. "Are you kidding me? You would really rather believe that the black market is involved than look at the obvious suspect here."

Dick shook his head and clenched both of his hands into fists. "No, I'm saying that, with multiple options here, we should get all of the facts before we go tracking down a dangerous criminal like Ivy-especially since we still don't even know what the purpose of this substance is. If we are dealing with her, then you can bet that this stuff was meant for someone specific and probably has some serious repercussions. Not to mention, I would still like to know what, exactly, Tim had in his system to counteract the stuff-and why."

Jason huffed out a breath at that. "What the hell does that matter?"

"Well, for starters, if Tim knew that he was going to possibly get doused with something, wouldn't you like to know why he didn't say anything to anyone? And second, I don't know about you, but I personally would like to be prepared for whatever this stuff is, especially if we are going to pay Ivy a visit."

Jason sighed in defeat as he pushed himself out of his seat. "Fine, then you take over. I'm a little sick of staring at all of those plant names."

Dick nodded once as he traded places with Jason. "I just changed Tim's IV bag, so you should probably go get some coffee or something while you can."

Jason felt certain that the only reason Dick was telling him to do so was because he didn't trust him around Tim while he was unconscious. Jason felt that was just ridiculous, after everything he had done so far for the replacement. Jason just scoffed at the cave in general as he moved toward the stairs. He honestly didn't know why he was even bothering. He did his job. He brought the broken bird home. There certainly wasn't any reason for him to stay-but then again, if Tim hadn't pushed him out of the way, then it would have been Jason fighting the effects of whatever was running through Tim's veins. He didn't tell Dick about that part, because Jason didn't want to admit that he owed the little bird anything. The truth was, Jason hated owing anyone anything, but especially Tim, of all people.

He guessed he should just be happy that he managed to dodge Bruce and his demon spawn. He wasn't sure where they were or how long they'd be gone, but Jason was grateful that he hadn't had to deal with either of them yet. After all, the last thing he needed right now was to deal with the two of them. Jason sighed as he made his way to the kitchen. He needed a large cup of Alfred's coffee and maybe some food before he could even think of heading back down to the cave. He just hoped that it didn't take them another six hours to figure out what else was running through Tim's veins.

The End (for now)


	4. Chapter 4

Jason really couldn't fault Dick for wanting to finish the analysis of everything that was running through Tim's system-not when quite a few of the substances were easily traced. Apparently, it was far harder to hide the transportation of certain illegal, endangered, and dangerous plants than either one of them had originally anticipated. That didn't, however, mean that Jason had to be happy about it. Dick's gloating that it had been the right move to make didn't improve Jason's mood any. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for whomever was receiving these plants, it hadn't actually taken them very long at all to find the warehouse where the shipments were being kept. Still, that was just one piece of the puzzle. There were still quite a few substances that they had no idea where they came from or how they came into play. Not to mention, they still had to figure out how someone was getting a hold of Bane's venom and why.

Despite all of that, Jason was still perfectly content with sitting on a rooftop overlooking a warehouse, if it got him away from Dick for awhile. His propensity to hover over the pretender's unconscious form was really starting to grate on Jason's nerves, and the last thing that he needed to deal with right now was Dick's habit of never shutting up. That said, Jason was itching for something to do right now. He had been sitting on this rooftop-freezing his butt off-for what felt like an eternity, and he hadn't seen anyone yet. The cold certainly wasn't making him any less irate, and it wasn't as though he ever really enjoyed surveillance to begin with. Honestly, he just wished that Tim would wake up already, so the kid could get back to being an obnoxious know-it-all, and Jason could back to not caring and not dealing with any of this.

He watched, silently grumbling to himself, as a figure approached the main entrance of the warehouse. Jason got into a crouch, waiting for the person to make a move. By the time the figure in question had finally entered the warehouse, Jason had decided he had had enough of this sitting around doing nothing bullshit, so he quickly followed the person in. It was almost surprisingly easy for him to slip past the security on the building, which only aggravated Jason further. He couldn't understand why someone had bothered to go to such an effort only to lax on security.

The reasoning for that, however, became apparent when he made it to the rafters, and saw what looked to be a florist's dreamland. There weren't a lot of people in Gotham who would bother stealing plants, no matter how valuable some of these things were. Jason inched his way across the beam he had perched on, and decided to take a look around. The warehouse had been turned into an effective greenhouse, but, given the time of year, artificial lightening was required to keep the plants alive. It was actually one of the ways they had discovered this place. That much electricity was sure to draw someone's attention, even if all of the windows in the place had been boarded up.

Jason paused when he noticed that the individual from before was standing in the middle of the warehouse. He wasn't actually all that surprised when the person removed their big, heavy, winter coat, and it turned out to be Poison Ivy standing there, stroking one of the plants. He just growled under his breath at Dick for being stupid, and reminded himself to shove that one in his brother's face later. It certainly might improve his night slightly. Jason continued spying on her from the rafters. He wasn't foolish, even if he hadn't been absolutely convinced that this was all Ivy's doing from the start, Jason had read enough about the side effects of some of these plants to come in prepared. He already made sure none of his skin had been exposed before he entered the building, and he was sure that his Red Hood mask would easily protect him from any airborne toxins.

Jason was about to leap down and interrogate her, when all of a sudden a green liquid began to rain down on the plants from the sprinkler system. Ivy made sure to stay out of way of the spray, which was a telling sign all on it's own. Jason was just happy to be above whatever that stuff was. He waited until the spray had died down, and then jumped off of his perch. He landed with a heavy thud behind her, just to see that moment of fear before she turned to face him. Her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of him. "You, what are you doing here?"

Jason glowered back, even though she couldn't see it behind his mask. "Why don't we just skip the usual back and forth, and you just tell me what the hell your plan is?"

Ivy glared at him mockingly. "You really don't understand how this game is played, do you?"

Jason had started off his night agitated, and it was only getting worse by the second. "Fine, why don't you just tell me what the hell the green spray was, and then I can kick your ass, and we can all get back to our regularly scheduled evening."

She smiled sourly at him, and then moved to brush her fingers over one of the nearby plants. "Oh, that? Nothing much. Just some nutrients for my babies-with a little of Bane's venom mixed in, of course. I find it just makes them so much more feisty."

Jason's eyes widen at that. They had assumed that the venom was used to specifically make people more aggressive...not the plants. This was definitely going to be a problem, especially now that Jason was surrounded by the overgrown vegetation. He braced for a fight as he reached for his guns, but before he even got a chance to wrap his fingers around one of them, the plants started attacking. He flipped backwards, out of the way of a couple of them coming at him from the sides, ducked three of them trying to take his head off, and then started shooting at the ones trying to curl around his legs. Between the vines attempting to coil around him, the noxious gasses some of the plants were secreting, and the deadly looking thorns various others were shooting at him, Jason knew that he was in trouble.

He realized before this fight had even started that there was no way that he was going to be able take on all of the plants, especially now that they had Bane's venom pumping through their every cell, but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to try. Jason made his way back up to the rafters, shooting at the plants trying to twist around his legs to immobilize him. Then he turned his attention to the climbing plants making their way up the walls. He wasn't surprised that Ivy had slipped out while he was in the midst of trying to stay alive, but, unfortunately, he didn't have time to worry about that right now. Jason was really starting to wish that he had come here with some flame throwers, or, at the very least, some backup. He was just about to make his exit through one of the skylights-and hopefully catch Ivy-when Jason realized that the plants would probably follow him through his escape route. The last thing that Jason felt like dealing with right now was tracking down a bunch of deadly plants running around the city while Ivy was on the loose.

He sighed to himself as he took a moment to reload his guns. It didn't matter that he was severely out numbered, or that he didn't exactly have the right equipment to deal with unnaturally vicious plants. Jason had absolutely no intention of being beaten by a bunch of overgrown flowers. He figured that if he could just thin out their numbers a little bit, by focusing on the truly dangerous looking ones, then he could take care of the less life-threatening ones with his knives. Jason aimed for the largest plants with thorns, and began firing at them as he moved across the rafters. He then turned his guns on the even larger ones expelling some sort of gas. He wasn't exactly expecting the gas to ignite, but that really only worked in his favor. At least, that was until the sprinkler system kicked on.

Jason cursed loudly as the plants grew even larger, thanks to the venom filled water spraying down on them. This was certainly not his night, and now he was going to have to go through the decontamination process, if he somehow managed to make it out of this. Jason growled as he pulled a handful of explosive pellets from one of his hidden pockets. He threw them at the plants still spewing toxins, and then made his way to the ground once more. He pulled out his knives, and began slicing and hacking at anything green that came close enough to attack. It wasn't enough, and Jason knew that it wasn't going to be before he had even started. However, that didn't stop him.

He felt something curl around his left ankle, but before he could reach down to slice it off there was another tendril twisting around his right wrist. Jason spun as much as he could in order to avoid the plant trying to wrap itself around his other wrist, and moved to cut himself out the grasp of the other two plants. He had freed his wrist, and bent to remove the vegetation from his ankle, when suddenly there was something coiling around his neck, and choking him as he was pulled to the floor. He tried to bring one of the knives up, in order to cut himself free, but the plants had already restrained both of his hands. Jason struggled against the green appendages trapping him, but to no avail.

It was getting hard to focus, and he was starting to see dark spots form at the edges of his vision. He needed to get a hand free or something, and soon. Jason tried twisting one of his arms free, but the tendril around his wrist only tightened its hold. Jason was infuriated, there was no way that he was going to allow a plant to be responsible for his second death, and certainly not by asphyxiating him. He continued straining against the various plants holding onto him, but nothing seemed to work. Jason was honestly considering just giving up, when he heard the distinctive sound of a blade slicing through foliage.

Jason's head abruptly hit the floor with a small thud as he sucked in oxygen. Coughing past his sore throat, he turned his head just enough to see Nightwing land in front of him, and start kicking plant ass. Jason didn't waste any time before cutting himself free and rolling back onto his feet. "Not that I'm complaining, but what the hell are you doing here?"

Dick slashed through the plant in front of him with one knife, flipped over another, and threw three batarangs at the one attacking Jason. "You didn't answer your comm. So, I came to see what kind of trouble you got yourself into this time."

Jason huffed out a breath as he dodged another plant from behind. He was just happy that the sprinkler system had shut off before Nightwing had jumped into the fray, given that Dick's mask left most of his face exposed. "I didn't answer it, because I left it at the cave. I didn't want you getting bored and deciding that talking my ear off was a good way to past time."

Dick kicked out at one plant, twisted underneath the reach of another, and then stabbed the one right in front of him until it was lying on the floor in pieces. "You realize that had you brought your comm, then you could have called for backup, right?"

Jason would have turned around and glared had he not been in the middle of trying not to fall on the wet floor, while evading multiple plants. "Could you maybe lecture me about comm protocol when we're not being attacked by a bunch of Ivy's mutant plants that have been doused in Bane's venom?"

Dick slid out of the way of a strike that probably would have incapacitated him had it connected, and then started hacking away at the offending vegetation. "Wait, Ivy's using Bane's venom on her plants? Well, that explains why they're so vicious."

Jason rolled his eyes behind his mask, as he pull out more explosive pellets, and tossed them at the plants moving to ambush Dick. "Yeah, yeah, a little less talking and a little more plant killing." 

Dick laughed as he spun away from another plant attack. "Why can't I do both?"

Jason growled as he sprang forward, and began mutilating a plant that had been shooting seedpods at them. "I'm starting to think that it really would kill you to shut up for awhile."

Dick smirked as he moved to take out a plant that was just about to stab Jason with its thorns. "Who knows? It might, so why risk it?"

Jason rolled his eyes again and resumed cutting down all of the plants surrounding him. "You know, if we make it out of this, I'm going to kick your ass later."

Dick spun away from a plant trying to strangle him, as he tossed a few explosive pellets of his own toward a group of plants trying to crowd him from the left side of the warehouse. "Why? I'm not the one who got in over his head with a bunch of plants."

Jason simply ignored him as they continued to fight. It wasn't as though he could necessarily argue that, and now wasn't really the time anyway. It felt like it took forever, and Jason was angry at how sore he was after the fight-after all, they were just plants-but together they had managed to take down every last one of the overgrown flowers. Jason had decided to let Dick gather the information from the office, while he made sure all of the plants were down for good.

When Dick finished gathering everything he could find, he wiped the computers, and then made his way back to the cave with Jason in tow. Neither one of them was pleased that they had to go through the decontamination process, but it was a necessary evil after everything they had gone through. They were both tired and sore, but they still spent hours going over every scrap of information they had collected from the warehouse. It was a long and tedious process of comparing the new information to everything they already had, including Tim's blood work, and it only aggravated Jason more.

He suddenly pushed away from the desk, and began rubbing his eyes. "If I have to look at one more chemical analysis, I'm going to put my fist through this computer screen."

Dick paused in what he was doing long enough to glance over at Jason. This case was eating up pretty much all of their time. Neither one of them had taken a real break yet, and it was obviously taking its toll on them. Dick tentatively laid a hand on Jason's shoulder, clearly not sure how the other man would react to the physical contact. "You should probably take a break. Maybe get some sleep. I've got this covered, and Alfred is taking care of Tim."

Jason shook his head. It was one thing being here when he was awake, but Jason really didn't feel comfortable being unconscious in this place. "Nah, I'm fine. I just hate this part of the job."

Dick laughed at that, as he turned back towards his work. "You always did."

Jason could feel the silence turning into an uncomfortable one, and he couldn't stand it. It was difficult enough to be here when things were going well between them. "I guess we're lucky that Ivy decided to slip out without all of this stuff, huh?"

Dick smiled slightly at the change of subject, before his face suddenly fell. "You don't think that she left this stuff for us to deliberately find, do you?"

Jason shook his head. "No, I doubt it. I mean, she seemed genuinely surprised and enraged when I showed up. Not to mention, I really don't think that she expected me to survive, let alone escape with all of this stuff."

Dick shrugged at that. "If you say so. I'm not looking forward to tracking her down, but we've got to figure out what else is still running through Tim's system if we have any intention of concocting an antidote. At least we know what Bane's venom is being used for now."

Jason sighed heavily as he slumped further into his chair. "Yeah, but we still don't know how she's getting her hands on it."

"I think we should focus on one problem at a time, don't you?"

Jason shrugged as he sat forward again. "I don't know. It might be time to pay Bane a visit. It's not like they couldn't be working together, you know?"

Dick shook his head at that idea. "Let's not go tracking him down until we at least have Poison Ivy back in custody. The last thing we need right now is another heavy hitter on our hands."

Jason's eyes narrowed at that. "If this is your way of putting this off until Bruce and the demon spawn are back in town..."

Dick held up his hand to stop Jason from continuing on his rant. "Look, this isn't a conspiracy. I'm not suicidal enough to trap you and Bruce in a room alone together. It's just factual. There's only so much that the two of us can handle alone, and with Tim out of commission, Bruce and Damian off world, and the two of us at our wits' ends I'd rather not get in over our heads."

Jason couldn't argue that logic, but he really wanted to. This was turning into the case from hell, and quite frankly, Jason was starting to wonder why he was even bothering to stick around. Sure, he owed Tim, but he was beginning to question how much he really owed him. "Yeah, fine, whatever. Let's just get back to work."

The two of them were silent for another three hours while they worked until suddenly Dick pushed his chair away from the desk, and flipped into a headstand. He began pacing the length of the cave while Jason just stared at him. "Problem, Dickie?"

Dick rolled down into a controlled fall, sprung back up, flipped twice, landed on his feet, and then resumed walking around on his hands. "I just need to move. It doesn't make any sense. We've been working for hours. We've identified almost everything that's in Tim's system, except for those last few substances. We figured out where it's all coming from, and how Ivy is getting a hold of it, except for Bane's venom, and those other unidentified chemicals. What I don't get is the end goal here? What's it all for?"

Jason was just about to suggest that they both take a break for a while when one name in particular stuck out on one of the shipping reports that Dick had been looking over. "I think I know."

Dick flipped back onto his feet and rushed over to Jason. "You do?"

Jason nodded as he pointed to one of the many printouts spread out on the desk. "Yeah, I recognize this particular company's name."

Dick glanced at the paper before staring at Jason with a raised eyebrow. "Oh? How do you recognize it?"

Jason glared at him for a moment. "What? Surprised I know something?"

Dick shook his head as he sunk down into his seat. "I didn't say that. It's just..."

Jason made a motion with his hand for Dick to stop. "You know what? It doesn't matter. The company is a logging company that I've been looking into. They've been selling drugs in their off hours. I was planning to go bust some heads once this case was dealt with, but it looks like Ivy got there before me."

Dick stared at him for a moment disbelievingly. "So, what? Ivy just happened to be sending these Bane venom infused plants to the same logging company that you were planing to take down? That seems a little convenient."

Jason shrugged as he continued looking over the paperwork. "Well, I doubt she knew anything about the drug operation. She was probably just upset over the whole killing trees thing."

Dick sighed. "Well, it is her MO, but it still seems a little too convenient."

Jason slumped back into his chair as he yawned. "Hey, weren't you the one who said we should focus on one problem at a time? Besides, we should probably just be grateful that thanks to our little impromptu plant shredding, we stopped the shipment of killer plants to this place."

Dick nodded as he leaned further into his own chair. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It just seems a little strange, that's all."

Jason shrugged again. He was tired and more than a little frustrated with everything going on. "Look, short of paying that place a visit I don't really see what we can do."

Dick sighed heavily once more. "I know, I know, and we should probably focus on figuring out what else is in Tim's system and how it got there before we do anything else."

Jason stared at Dick for a moment. He didn't like seeing that dejected look on the other man's face, but he wasn't really sure what to do about it. After a moment of indecision, Jason slowly lifted his hand, and placed it on Dick's shoulder, before squeezing gently. It was awkward, but Jason didn't know what else to do. "We'll figure it out, Dick."

Dick smiled slightly at the reassurance. "I know we will, Jason. I know we will."

The End (for now)


	5. Chapter 5

Dick was taking a nap, Alfred was out running some errands, Tim was still in a medically-induced coma in his bed, and Jason...well, Jason was snooping around Tim's room. He'd have loved to say that he was looking for a lead or something as equally significant, but the truth was he was just bored and had nothing to do. Sure, he could tell himself that he was keeping an eye on Tim while Alfred was out, but there wasn't much to be done. Alfred had taken care of all of Tim's medical needs before he left. They still had no idea what the last few substances in Tim's bloodstream were, and the analysis of venom filled water that they ran didn't reveal anything that they didn't already know. The truth was they didn't have anymore leads, and-short of Tim waking up and telling them what he knew about all of this, which was unlikely-they didn't know where to find any.

Jason made another circuit through Tim's room while riffling through his CD collection. The kid's music taste certainly left something to be desired. Jason abandoned his search for something decent to listen to and moved on to searching through Tim's desk. The only reason Jason had decided to take refuge in Tim's room was because it was the only room in the whole damn manor that didn't have some kind of memory attached to it. The mere thought of entering his old room here made Jason's stomach roll. He couldn't face everything from his past...not now. He just wanted to figure out what the hell was going on, and then get the hell out of here.

He was shuffling through some of the papers in the top drawer of Tim's desk-mostly reports for WE...nothing of any real interest-when his finger brushed something that definitely didn't feel like paper. He blindly felt around until his finger passed over a small round hole in the back of the drawer. Jason bent down to take a closer look and found a small wire-like tube attached to the hole. Curious as to what the hell it was, Jason pulled the desk away from the wall, and followed the tube to a small white capsule affixed to the bottom of the drawer. Jason didn't have a single clue as to what it was, and quite frankly he was fairly certain that it was probably some kind of booby trap, so he took his time disconnecting the little capsule from the desk. Once he was done, and he was sure that nothing was going to explode, Jason wrapped the thing in a few tissues, just in case, and made his way down to the cave.

He wasn't really sure what he was expecting to find, but x-raying the capsule gave him something to do. The x-rays were clean, but that didn't mean that the capsule was harmless. There was still the possibility of chemicals, or something else that x-rays wouldn't detect. Jason moved onto the next machine that would analyze the chemical composition of the capsule itself and anything that might be inside. He made sure that, once the chemical analysis was done, it would compare the results with anything they had on file. There was no reason for him to do that portion of the work manually if he didn't have to, and since this wasn't anything resembling official vigilante work, Jason certainly didn't see a reason for it.

There wasn't much for him to do after that. The chemical analysis was going to take a hell of a lot longer to finish than the x-rays had, and he didn't really feel like returning to his pseudo-vigil over Tim, so Jason plopped down in the chair in front of the computer and waited. He thought about rummaging through the information they had gathered at the warehouse again and see if he could piece together anything else that might clue them into how Ivy had gotten her hands on Bane's venom, but the mere thought of looking through that stuff again made Jason's eyes droop. Then again, that could have something to do with the severe lack of sleep he had been experiencing.

Truth be told, Jason didn't honestly remember the last time he had slept. It was most likely the night before he had run into Tim on patrol and that was three days ago. Jason yawned just thinking about how tired he was as he slumped further into the chair, his eyes sliding closed without his permission. He tried to force himself awake, but the air in the cave was cool and the chair he was sitting in was oddly comfortable. The next thing he knew Jason was snuggling into the padded leather of the high backed chair as he slowly drifted to sleep.

Jason jolted awake the moment he felt a hand on his shoulder, and spun around to see Dick giving him the most contrite expression he had ever seen on the man. "What the hell?"

Dick stared down at him with a still rueful smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, but whatever you were analyzing is done."

Jason grunted to himself. Well, that meant that he had at least gotten a few hours of sleep. He ran a hand over his face trying to wake himself more fully, and then he glanced down to find a warm red blanket lying over his bottom half. He glanced up at Dick with a raised eyebrow, but before he could ask, Dick shook his head. "Don't look at me. That was Alfred's doing."

Jason couldn't help the small smile of chagrin that crept onto his face. Of course it was Alfred. The man was always looking after everyone, including a former Robin who didn't really belong here anymore. Jason shook his head as if to clear it, and then turned back towards the chemical analysis. What he found definitely surprised him. He was honestly starting to doubt the computer's accuracy when he realized something. He had seen this type of chemical compound before, and not just because it matched the unknown substances in Tim's bloodstream. "Well, this just got a hell of a lot more complicated."

Dick's stared at him, clearly confused by Jason's statement. "What are you talking about? What are you even analyzing?"

Jason sighed as he gestured toward the little object he had in the machine. "This is a capsule I found mounted to the underside of Tim's desk. It was rigged to release some kind of chemical compound when the drawer was shut. The chemicals inside this lovely little capsule match the unknown substances in Tim's system. What's even more interesting is that I recognize them. I didn't at first because I was focusing on matching them to plants-and when that didn't work, I still didn't recognize them because I wasn't combining the two of them. Combined, the two chemicals create an odorless gas that, while non-life threatening, causes some pretty nasty side effects. Assuming Tim accidentally dosed himself with this stuff before he went out the other night, he wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong or started feeling said effects until about halfway through his patrol." 

Dick held up a hand to stop Jason's explanation. "And let me guess. That would have been about the time that the two of you ran into that warehouse where he got exposed to Ivy's lovely new concoction."

Jason nodded. "Yeah, but that's not the interesting bit."

Dick raised his eyebrow. "Okay, so what's the interesting bit?"

Jason almost didn't want to tell him. After all, this was probably going to raise more questions-ones that Jason really didn't want to answer. "The reason I recognized the chemical compound is because it's one of Talia's specialties. She uses it when she feels like playing with her disobedient lackeys. So, the real question is, how did Talia's special chemical compound end up attached to Tim's desk?"

Dick's eyebrows suddenly furrowed at that piece of information, and the next thing that Jason knew, Dick was yelling as loud as he could while he paced the length of the cave. "I swear, when Damian gets home I'm going to kill him. It's one thing for him to cut Tim's line...Tim's trained to deal with that, but literally poisoning him is something else entirely. Hell, he could have gotten Tim killed! What if he had been in the middle of a swing when the side effects hit him? This is just completely irresponsible-and of course he rigged it so that he wouldn't even be here for the fallout."

Dick was fuming, and Jason was almost relieved that he was so preoccupied that he didn't bother to ask how Jason knew so much about Talia's operations, because that was a conversation Jason desperately did not wish to have. However, he couldn't really deal with Dick's anger toward the youngest Bat right now. They still had a lot of work to do, and, after all, he should save it for when the kid was actually home. "Chill out, you might actually end up thanking the kid."

Dick suddenly turned his fury onto Jason. "What in the world makes you think I'll be thanking Damian for this stunt?"

Jason held up his hands in the air defensively. "Look, I'm sure it wasn't his intention, but he probably saved Tim's life."

Dick paused for a moment before his eyebrows knitted together out of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Jason sighed as though it should be obvious. "When Tim was sprayed with Ivy's concoction the chemical compound that was already in his system counteracted most of the other chemicals. It's actually probably one of the reasons he was crying nonstop for over an hour. His system was trying to flush the chemicals. He was probably controlling his gag reflex which is most likely the only reason he wasn't vomiting profusely-and while I'm thinking about it, remind me to thank the kid for that. Anyway, even though we now know all of the different substances coursing through his veins, it's not going to be easy to synthesize an antidote. There's a lot of different chemicals and even more chemical reactions going on, but, at least we know what we're dealing with now. So, lets just focus on our next task.

Dick took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Okay, so Tim's probably going to be fine. That's something. So, what's our next task?"

Jason shrugged. "Hell, if I know. You're supposed to be the one in charge, remember? I'm just a tag-a-long."

Before either one of them could say anything more, they heard a very distinctive clearing of the throat behind them. They both turned to see Alfred caring a tray laden with tea and sandwiches. "If I may, sirs?" At their nods, Alfred continued as he set the tray down near the two of them on the desk. "I would suggest the two of you focus your efforts on finding Ms. Isley. Master Bruce has taught me a thing or two about synthesizing antidotes."

Jason grinned as he grabbed a sandwich off of the tray. "Of course he did, because there's not a thing that you can't do, Alfred."

Alfred gave him one of his softer expressions as he handed him a napkin. "I would certainly hope not, Master Jason."

Dick sighed as he sipped his tea. "So, I guess the real question is, where do we start looking for her?"

Jason shrugged once again. "I don't know. We could always start with the classics...Robinson Park and then work from there."

Dick shook his head. "Nah, in this weather, even Ivy will be looking for indoor shelter. We could start with old greenhouses and flower shops. I think the Botanical Gardens is a little too obvious...even for Ivy."

Jason nodded. "Sounds like as good a plan as any, but lunch first...these sandwiches are amazing."

Dick laughed as he stuffed one into his mouth as well. "Can't argue with you there."

They both received a very pointed look from Alfred. "While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I do recall teaching both of you not to talk with your mouths full."

Both of them glanced down to the ground with an abashed smile and muttered a small, "Sorry, Alfred," as they continued to eat their lunch.

The End (for now)


	6. Chapter 6

The task of tracking down Ivy was about as hellish as Jason expected it to be, especially given that it had started to snow shortly after they had started their search and it was only growing colder as the night wore on. Dick didn't seem to mind the sub-zero temperature, but Jason was beginning to grow tired of the constant dead ends they had been running into; and the fact that his fingers were rapidly growing numb inside of his gloves wasn't improving his mood. "So, any more bright ideas, goldie, or are we going to spend the entire night running down bad leads? We've already wasted the afternoon."

Dick paused on the next rooftop and turned back to face Jason. "Well, I don't hear you coming up with any brilliant plans. Instead, you just spend every waking moment complaining."

He glared at the acrobat, wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face. "Excuse me for fucking hating the cold."

Dick sighed as he shook his head, most likely disapproving of Jason's language. Not that Jason cared in the slightest. "It's not that bad - besides, how many greenhouses and flower shops are in Gotham anyway? It can't be that many, right? Surely, we checked most of them by now."

"Why do I get the impression that baby bird would have enacted this search in a far more efficient manner?"

Dick shrugged before jumping off of the rooftop. "He definitely wouldn't be complaining so much."

Jason grumbled to himself before following suit. "Sure, I'm the ass, while you're the one who dragged us out in the snow without an actual fucking plan."

"Hey, I have a plan." Dick's affronted voice sounded over the wind.

Jason rolled his eyes as they continued toward their next target. "Wandering the city aimlessly searching every greenhouse and flower shop is not an actual plan."

"You didn't seem to have any objections when we started. In fact, if I remember correctly you said, and I quote, 'sounds like as good a plan as any'."

"Yeah, well, that was ten buildings and far too many hours ago. Clearly, Alfred's sandwiches wiped out my common sense."

"You say that like you had any before the sandwiches."

Jason's retort was cut off as they came upon a building that clearly had quite a lot of plant activity going on in the greenhouse. "I think we found Ivy." Dick whispered as they watched multiple plants curl around the windows, trying to capture what little light there was left in the day.

"Gee, you think? It's like you were trained by the world's greatest detective or something."

Dick beamed at him. "Really? What gave me away?"

Jason rolled his eyes once again. "I'm not above throwing you through one of those windows to make our entrance."

Dick's smile only grew at Jason's irritation. "Hmm, we might want to go with something a bit more subtle, Little Wing. I mean, we don't even know if she's in there."

Jason sighed as he shook his head, wondering how the hell he got stuck with the golden child. "Whatever, put in your rebreather. We don't need another damn problem on our hands."

The upside to Dick wearing a rebreather was that he couldn't talk while it was in his mouth, which, at least, gave Jason a small amount of peace. He signaled for Dick to go in through the skylight, while he made his way towards the back door. Jason was counting on his full face mask to keep him from breathing in any of Ivy's nasty concoctions. They got into position, checking the perimeter for any signs of added security or traps while there were at it. When they deemed the place clear, Jason pulled out a couple of knives and gestured for Dick to move in. Kicking the door in at the precise moment that Dick crashed through the ceiling was an old and well-practiced move that they had used, back when Jason was Robin. It was a little surreal being the one who got to burst through the barred door, but it was exhilarating all the same.

He swung his knives around, slicing through the plants that were attacking him, while ignoring the muffled screaming behind him and trying not to get impaled by thousands of pieces of sharp glass shrapnel. Jason saw Dick fighting off his own hoard of overgrown shrubbery while he glanced around for Ivy. Instead, he found a wall of plants standing between him and the person who had been screaming. Ivy was nowhere in sight, but Jason knew to proceed with caution. He couldn't see much through the towering vines blocking his way, but he did manage to make out a woman huddled underneath a computer desk that she was literally chained to. There was duct tape over her mouth and her hands were shackled in front of her.

Jason didn't think twice before stabbing the vine closest to him, and then dancing away as the others moved to attack him. He didn't really have a plan beyond getting the nasty plants away from the shackled lady, but Jason was used to thinking on his feet, and the two of them did come prepared with a few extra gadgets for this very reason. Jason taunted the plants, luring them further away from the woman, and when they were a safe distance away, Jason pulled out a small canister filled with lighter fluid from one of his various pockets, and threw it directly at the vine in the center. He let the plants fight over it, causing the canister to break open. Jason then flipped out of the way of the plants' failing limbs, making sure he was a fair distance away, and then he pulled out a lighter and threw it at the vines. They ignited immediately and slammed into the other plants in their vicinity, tangling with them as they desperately tried to put themselves out. Jason ignored the plants' frantic thrashing as they slowly burned out, in favor of focusing on the woman still crouched under the computer desk.

The unnatural glow of the computer screen and the shadows created by its light exaggerated her sunken cheeks and wide eyes. He gestured for Dick, who had just finished dealing with his own plant problem, to follow him. Glass crunched under their feet as they made their way over towards the bound woman, and Dick slipped the rebreather out of his mouth the moment he saw the woman. When they neared her, Dick held out his hands in a calming gesture as he knelt down and removed the tape from the woman's mouth as he tried to sooth her in a way only Nightwing could. "It's okay. We're the good guys. You're safe now."

The woman weakly struggled against the chains keeping her in place, her stained, torn, and tattered dress nearly slipping off her shoulder with the movement. "Please, you have to get me out of here. She'll be back soon."

"You're talking about Poison Ivy, right?" The woman nodded franticly; despite how frail she looked, she was still trying to slip out of the metal cuffs around her wrists. Dick grabbed her hands in a gentle but firm hold, halting her struggles long enough for him to pick the lock on her restraints. "Who are you, and what does Ivy want with you?"

The woman shook her head, dirty matted hair falling into her equally filthy face. "I'll tell you everything; just get me out of here first."

Dick was helping the woman to her bare feet, carefully avoiding the glass, when Jason noticed that there were still a few plants alive, and that they had started crawling towards them, blocking them from the exit. "It sounds like a fair deal to me, and since there are still plants coming after us, I think it's time to go." Jason motioned for Dick to make his way back out through the broken skylight with the woman, while he kept the vegetation at bay with his knives.

Dick didn't hesitate before grabbing the woman around the waist and pulling out his grappling gun. Jason made sure they were clear before making his own way to the roof. He had no way of knowing if these plants where pumped full of Bane-venom water like the others had been, but he sure as hell wasn't about to take any chances. Checking to make sure that Dick was well out of the way with the woman, Jason dug out some explosives, and crudely fashioned a detonator, and set the explosive. It wasn't his best work, but Jason didn't exactly have a lot of time on his hands. He had made his way out of the building and over a couple of roofs, when the building went up in a cloud of smoke and blaze of fire.

Dick met up with him on the roof; the woman he was carrying had evidently passed out at some point, and Jason could clearly see how sickly and thin she looked, now that they were out in the moonlight. Dick, on the other hand, was obviously aggravated with how Jason handled things. "What the hell was that?"

Jason merely shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

"First, what if those plants had all caught fire before we saved her," Dick nudged his head in the direction of the woman in his arms, "and second, what the hell were you thinking, blowing the place up?"

Jason rolled his eyes, even though he knew Dick couldn't see it under his mask. "I was thinking, bird brain, that if those plants were hopped up on venom water, then we probably didn't want to risk them getting out alive."

Dick glared, but didn't argue further. "Whatever; if Ivy is after her, then we should take her to a safe house."

Jason reluctantly agreed, even though he was still irritated with Dick. "Fine, I have one close by."

"What's the security like?" Dick shifted the woman in his arms to better support her.

Jason folded his arms over his chest. "Better than yours, that's for damn sure."

"What makes you so certain?"

"Please, if it wasn't for O, your place would be overrun with security breaches."

"And if it wasn't for Alfred, yours would be overrun with rodents."

Jason was about to fire back with another insult, but before he got a chance, the woman began mumbling in her sleep. "We should probably get her out of here, don't you think?

Dick looked as though he still wanted to argue, but instead he merely repositioned the woman. "Fine, lead the way."

When they got to Jason's safe house, Dick immediately placed the woman on the bed and started looking around. He was searching through random cupboards while Jason went to get a first aid kit and tend to the woman's wounds. It was clear, from the marks on her arms, that she had been kept shackled for a while, but more than that, she had some lacerations across her face and arms that needed cleaned - along with the rest of her. All in all, her wounds weren't severe. However, she was definitely dehydrated and needed to eat. Jason wasn't sure how long Ivy had kept the woman locked up, but it had certainly taken a toll on her. He hooked up an IV for her before going to see what Dick was up to in the other room. It had been suspiciously quiet.

Jason found Dick sitting on the couch, munching on a granola bar with a laptop in front of him. "What are you doing?"

Dick glanced over at him when Jason sat down beside him on the sofa. "Looking through missing person reports, trying to find a match for her."

"You have fun with that. I'm going to go find something to eat that isn't a granola bar."

"Good luck with that. Your pantry is severely lacking."

Jason merely shrugged. "Well, what do you want from me? It's been a while since Alfie has been around."

Their bickering eventually died down to minor jabs while Jason searched for something to eat, and eventually the two of them lapsed into silence when all he could find were some crackers and various canned goods.

Jason lounged on the other end of the couch, while Dick searched through the seemingly endless list of missing person reports. His attempts to doze were interrupted by the sound of Dick tapping his foot restlessly against the floor and drumming his fingers against the side of the laptop.

It was hours later when the sound of screaming woke him and Jason bolted upright, heading straight for the bedroom. The woman was clearly panicking at her new surroundings, and had torn out her IV; but Dick was already on the bed, trying to calm her down. She was still breathing heavily, but didn't seem so terrified, now that Dick had assured her that she was merely at a safe house and could be returned home the moment they had Ivy in custody. Jason stood in the doorway, letting Dick handle it. He was always better with people, anyway - especially victims.

Dick gently coaxed her back down onto the bed and talked her into allowing him to replace her IV. "It's just some fluid to help rehydrate you. I promise." He spoke softly as he slid the new IV port into her arm."

Once the woman had calmed down, Jason took a seat and tried to appear as placid as possible. "I know you've been through a lot, but we really need you to answer a few questions. Can you do that?" The woman nodded her head, but still seemed wary of them both. Jason sighed and tried to keep his voice level when he spoke. "What's your name?"

"Doctor Denise Emerson."

Dick's eyes widened beneath his mask as he glanced down at Denise. "You work at Wayne Enterprises, right? Red Robin was looking into your disappearance, but as far as I know, he couldn't find any leads. Why did Poison Ivy abduct you?"

Denise cleared her throat slightly before answering. "I'm a biochemist. She wanted me to recreate some kind of chemical, which she was using on her plants. I…I didn't have a choice."

Dick placed his hand on the woman's shoulder. "It's okay. Do you know what she planned on doing with the plants afterwards? We know that she was planning on sending a batch to a certain logging company, but we don't know what else she might have been doing with them."

Denise shook her head. "I was just forced to recreate the chemical and make sure it didn't harm her plants. I don't know anything else. I'm sorry."

Dick gave her a reassuring smile as he patted her arm. "It's alright. We'll let you get some rest. If you need anything, give us a call on this," Dick handed her a communicator and proceeded to show her how to use it, before gesturing toward his left. "And there's a bathroom right through there."

Denise nodded once. "Thank you."

Dick beamed at her as the two of them left the room. Jason was about to ask him what the hell their next move should be when suddenly there was a beeping noise in his ear. Jason reached up to activate his comm. "What's up, A?"

"Master Jason, I am pleased to report that Master Timothy has regained consciousness.

Jason could hear the relief in the old man's voice, even through his dry tone. "I'll be sure to tell N and we'll head home."

"Very well, young sir. I shall see you both, soon."

Dick was nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet with worry. "What is it? What happened?"

Jason merely shook his head. "Relax, he just wanted to let us know that baby-bird is awake."

Jason was sure he had never seen Dick smile so widely. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Jason simply smirked as he made his way toward the window. "You, Slowwing."

The End (for now)


	7. Chapter 7

Jason knew that Dick didn't want to bombard Tim with a bunch of questions, given that he had only been awake for a few hours, but - with a biochemist hiding out at one of his safe houses, and everything else that was going on - Jason wanted answers sooner rather than later. "Look, I know you almost died and all, but we kind of have a lot of shit going on. So, if you could tell us what the hell you know about Ivy's new plan, that'd be great. Also, we found that scientist from WE that you were looking for. Apparently, Ivy had her."

Tim stared at him for a long moment, seemingly trying to process all of the information that Jason just threw at him. "Ivy had Denise Emerson? Why? I mean, I knew that Ivy was up to something. While I was looking into Denise's disappearance, I came across one of Ivy's old hideouts, and I found a list of corporations - some of them were construction companies, others were logging companies, and there were a few oil corporations on the list as well. I figured Ivy planned some kind of attack on them, but I don't know what."

Jason glanced over to Dick, who was sitting on the bed beside Tim. "Well, I think we know the answer to that one." He turned his attention back to Tim, and continued, "But none of that explains why, if you knew we were walking into one of Ivy's warehouses, you didn't say anything before you got sprayed."

Tim raised an eyebrow at Jason, and looked at him as though he was crazy. "What are you talking about? I didn't know that we were walking into one of her warehouses. I was just patrolling the area when you showed up and we saw the power fluctuations. I had no idea I was going to be sprayed or that Ivy was even involved with that warehouse."

Jason was about to argue that he didn't believe Tim for a second when Dick cut in. "Okay, first things first. I assume you have a copy of Ivy's hit list on your laptop." At Tim's nod, Dick continued. "Okay, I'll go upstairs and get it. We should make sure that Ivy didn't manage to send out any of her newly improved and deadly plants to her targets. Jason, do you want to stay here and contact the various corporations while I head back to your safe house and check on Denise?"

Jason rolled his eyes. That shouldn't have even been a question. Of course he'd take fishing for information over wellness checks any day. "You can bet your ass I'm staying here."

Dick ignored Jason in favor of turning to Tim. "If you're feeling up to it, I need you to tap into the city's power grid and see if you can find any places that have had unusually large influxes of power lately. The faster we find Ivy the better, especially since she's probably noticed that Denise is missing by now and cleared out of that building."

Tim nodded once again as Dick dashed up the stairs, presumably to get Tim's laptop for him. Jason waited until he was absolutely certain that Dick was gone before turning toward Tim. "Thanks for taking the hit for me." He wasn't used to having to express gratitude to people, and it made him a little uncomfortable.

Tim merely shrugged. "Don't mention it."

Jason rolled his eyes at the typical Bat response, and resumed his place on the other side of the cave. When Dick returned with Tim's laptop, it only took the kid a few seconds to pull up the list for Jason. Dick was already heading out of the cave on his favorite motorcycle by the time that Jason had copied the file and gotten to work on contacting the various corporations. Pretending to be a member of the EPA, and warning the various corporations to avoid any deliveries with any kind of plant life in them was tiring, but Jason figured it had to be better than Dick's job.

Tim and Jason worked on their separate tasks in relative silence until Alfred came down to check on Tim. The older gentleman spent about five minutes doing his version of fretting over his patient before deeming Tim well enough to continue working, but Jason didn't miss the pointed look that Tim received, which was Alfred's version of a warning of what would happen if Tim worked himself too hard. Jason suspected it wouldn't deter the kid one bit from overworking himself, but then again, it was an Alfred threat, so there was always a chance.

Jason had just finished making the last phone call when Dick's frantic voice was suddenly in his ear. "I thought you said that this place was secure! The entire back wall is smashed and Denise is missing."

Jason winced at how loud Dick's voice was through the comm. "Shit, calm down. The place was secure. Ivy must have had a tracker on her, which makes this your fault."

"My fault? How the hell is this my fault?"

"I'm fairly certain that the guy carrying the hostage to the safe house is supposed to check for tracking devices, Dick." Jason spat the last word like an insult.

"Well, excuse me for being too preoccupied with trying not to get caught in the explosion _you_ set off."

Jason rolled his eyes, even though he knew Dick couldn't see it. "It wasn't even that big of an explosion, Whinewing."

"That's enough, both of you!" Jason could hear Tim's voice in stereo, and turned to see that Tim had grabbed his own comm from somewhere. "Jason, meet up with Dick and see if you can find anything at the safe house. I'll stay here and continuing searching for power fluctuations around the city."

Jason grumbled, but didn't argue as he made his way over to his own motorcycle. He left his comm on, hoping that Tim would find something before he got to the safe house and had to deal with Dick in person. However, it didn't seem as though luck was ever on Jason's side. He walked into the safe house to find Dick sifting through the debris from the broken wall. "Find anything?"

Dick shook his head. "There's some plant residue, but nothing that would lead us to where Ivy has taken Denise."

Jason huffed out an annoyed breath. "Great, so now it's a waiting game to see if Tim can find anything."

Dick shrugged. "Maybe not, I didn't find any remnants of the comm that I gave her."

Jason scoffed. "Yeah, but what's the likelihood that she managed to have it on her, and Ivy didn't find and destroy it?"

Dick heaved a sigh. "I don't know, but it's worth a try." He reached up and hit his comm again. "Hey, Tim, I gave Denise a comm. Can you pull up the tracking data on it?"

"Sure, it'll just take a second." Tim sounded distracted as he answered, which meant he was probably still sorting through the electricity data for the entire city.

Jason folded his arms over his chest and stared at Dick for a moment. "Since when do the comms double as a tracking device?"

Dick merely smiled as he waited for Tim to get them the information. "They're great, right? Tim designed them for…" Suddenly Dick trailed off.

Jason narrowed his eyes, knowingly. "What did he design them for, Dickie-bird."

Tim sighed over the comm once more. "You…I designed them for you, Jason. We wanted to be able to contact you and track your movements, in case you needed help."

Jason glared at Dick, but only because he couldn't glare at Tim. "You know, the more I learn about this stupid misadventure, the more I feel like it was less of a spontaneous event and more like it was a set up. How long were you tracking me before you '_randomly_' ran into me on patrol, pretender?"

Tim heaved another long sigh before answering. "I wasn't tracking you. I only check the data on your comm when no one's seen or heard from you for a while. However, none of that is relevant right now. I have the tracking data from Denise's comm, and unless you were hiding her at the botanical gardens, I think it's safe to say that you'll have your hands full, so try not to kill each other along the way."

"Maybe Poison Ivy should change her name to Cliché Ivy."

Jason shook his head at Dick, but didn't say anything. He was still fuming, but Jason figured he would save his anger for the inevitable army of plants that they were undoubtedly going to have to face. "I assume you'll want to enter from the ceiling again, golden boy."

Dick merely smirked as he leapt out of the broken wall. Jason growled as he watched Dick land on the fire escape on the adjacent building and glanced up at him with far too much mirth. "A performer never makes the same entrance twice in the same night. You can go in from above this time."

Jason rolled his eyes as he made his way to the fire escape and then up to the next roof. "Whatever, get a move on. We've got plants to kill."

Dick smiled mischievously as he followed Jason up to the roof. "Don't you mean we've got weeds to whack?"

Without even thinking Jason reached out and slapped Dick upside the head before he could leap to the next building. "No…hell no. If you're going to spend the entire time making bad gardening jokes, then I'm out of here."

"It could have been worse." Tim's voice broke into their bickering. "He could have said…"

"No, don't you dare encourage him!" Jason growled out as he made his way across the rooftops.

Dick practically cackled as he flipped to the next one. "You can't stop both of us, Jay."

Jason groaned as the two of them started teasing back and forth with worse and worse plant puns. "I don't deserve this kind of torture." 

Dick laughed. "Lighten up. We're almost there."

Jason grinned at the thought of Dick finally having to fall silent. "That's just what I've been waiting for."

The End (for now)


	8. Chapter 8

Jason was honestly annoyed with whomever had designed this particular building. Sure, it was great for the plants, but it was terrible for mounting a stealth attack. He growled to himself as he got into position. There was really only one way for this to go down, and that meant Jason had to play the part that he hated the most. "You know, Goldie, I would have thought you'd love to play the distraction. After all, aren't circus brats supposed to love being the center of attention?"

"You're just mad, because you lost the bet." Dick's joy at Jason's predicament was nearly palpable.

He clung to the metal supports and pressed himself close to the freezing cold glass of the large dome. Jason hated every detail of this plan, not that he had a better one. "Whatever, you got eyes on Ivy yet?"

"Yeah, she's sticking close to Denise and she's got a fair number of plants around her that she's already doused in her venom water. Fortunately, she didn't have enough time to set up another sprinkler system."

Jason glared at the plants below him slowly curling towards the ceiling. "Yeah, real fortunate." He sighed heavily as he took stock of everything in the room. "Things just keep getting better and better. You ready?"

Dick paused for so long that Jason was starting to wonder if the idiot had gotten himself captured already. "Alright, I'm in position. Make your move."

Jason didn't hesitate as he smashed through the window he had been clinging to, and immediately began taking out as many plants as possible. The goal was to make as much noise as he could, which Jason was quite adept at, if he did say so himself. The upside to this particular part of the building being as large as it was, meant that Jason could indiscriminately use his smaller fire bombs to his heart's content.

"What are you doing? I can hear explosions already." Dick spoke through grunts, which meant he was on the move. "Did you forget our little talk about avoiding property damage?"

"I'll make sure to bill B, don't you worry." He grabbed his knives, ducked underneath a swipe from a large vine, and began hacking at everything in his path. "Where's Ivy? I've killed enough of these little bastards that she should be in a full-on rage by now."

"Oh, she's mad, but she's still staying close to Denise, and there are too many of her venom filled plants in the way for me to do anything."

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to be a bit more persuasive." Jason grinned to himself as he headed straight for the largest plant in his vicinity, cutting down any vegetation that got in his way. In the center of the room was a large flowering tree with thick branches, and he knew exactly what he needed to do to draw Ivy out. Jason could tell that getting in close was really the only option he had for his plan to work, but, with the smaller surrounding plants and the tree's broad reach, it wasn't going to be easy.

He flipped and rolled, staying just out of the range of the giant overgrown tree, and managed to take down a few of the smaller plants around it. He kept moving as he waited for the right moment, and when the tree attacked, Jason jumped on top of its branch and ran straight towards its center. He quickly attached a small explosive to the trunk of the tree, and then leapt off of it. Jason dashed toward the other side of the room, kicking plants toward the tree as he went. He didn't have to wait long before there was a loud explosion that blew plant debris all over the place. Jason did his best to avoid the large chunks of wood that scattered around the room, but a few of the larger pieces slammed into him anyway, but Jason ignored the pain. The sound of the explosion was nearly drowned out by an even louder feminine scream from a few rooms away. "What did you just do? She's writhing in pain."

"Let's just say B is going to need to purchase this place a new theobroma cacao and possibly a few new windows."

Dick sighed heavily into the comm. "Well, at least you bothered to read the plaque before you blew up a portion of the building."

Jason shrugged, even though Dick couldn't see him, as he turned back towards the remaining plants with his knives in hand. "Hey, there hasn't been any structural damage…yet."

"Yeah, it's the yet that I'm worried about." There was a pause as they both heard Ivy screech again, but this time it wasn't in pain. This was a scream of pure rage. "Get ready, she's on the move, and she's bringing friends."

"Man, I hate that. I didn't get to bring any friends. I just got stuck with you." Jason did his best to get into a position with an optimal escape route, but there was no denying they were on Ivy's turf.

"Very funny. I'm heading in; draw her away as much as you can while I get Denise out of here."

"Yeah, yeah, I was there for the briefing, Mr. Perfect." Jason could see Ivy rushing into the room followed by a small horde of plants. He turned to make a run for it, luring her further away from Dick's location. "Just be quick. There's more vegetation in here than I've got explosives."

He could hear fighting over the comm, signaling Dick was having his own fun with some of Ivy's pets, but he didn't really have time to worry about that since there was suddenly a wall of plants cutting off Jason's exit and Ivy was slowly making her way toward him. "You really shouldn't have destroyed so many of my babies. I might have made your end a quick one."

"I gotta say, I don't actually believe you." He didn't waste time with any more banter as he threw another explosive behind him at the wall of plants and a flash grenade in front of him, directly at Ivy, and then made a break for it. Her feral shriek only lasted a few moments before more plants than he had ever seen descended on him. Jason was left jumping over them and sliding past them as he ran away. His knives were still out and he was still hacking away as he rushed out of the room, but they might as well have been butter knives, for all of the good that they were doing him.

There was no point in glancing behind him. After all, Jason knew what was chasing him - and yet he still had to resist the urge to glance over his shoulder as he dived over more greenery and did his best to avoid getting his head lopped off by various tree branches. "If you're not too busy, I could really use a hand here."

"I'm getting Denise out now; just hold her off a little longer." There was a grunt that probably meant Dick had taken a hit from something.

Jason ducked under another plant, slashing it in half as he went and nearly got tripped up by another. "Yeah, easier said than done."

Jason was just about to bound over a strange bush of some kind when he felt a tendril wrap around his legs and drag him down onto the floor. Before he could cut himself free there were more plants coiling around him and slowly smothering him. Jason struggled as much as he could but there wasn't enough leverage to escape. "I can't wait anymore. I'm doing it now."

"What? No, Jason, come on." The panic in Dick's voice was evident, but there was nothing Jason could do about that. "I only let you set those up as a last resort. I'm on my way to your location now. Don't do it!"

"There's no time. I can't get free." However, before Jason could make a move there was the sound of glass shattering and Ivy screamed once again.

"Hold your breath." The voice didn't come through the comm and it wasn't Dick's. Jason would have yelled, but he knew better than to disobey such an order just to complain. A peculiar yellow gas filled the air and within seconds the plants fell away from Jason.

He quickly got to his feet and glared at the person in front of him. All of the plants in the vicinity of the gas died almost immediately while Ivy continued to howl as if in pain. Since he was unsure if his mask would filter whatever it was properly, Jason waited until the gas dissipated completely before speaking. "What the hell are you doing here? A is going to be so pissed when he discovers you're missing."

Red Robin shrugged as he grabbed his bo staff and turned to face Ivy, who was back on her feet and livid. "Well, since it was either that or let you blow the support beams and possibly kill yourself, I'm sure he'll understand."

"You…you killed them all. How could you? These plants were rare. Some of them were endangered." Ivy practically growled as she leapt at Tim who swiftly sidestepped her and brought his bo down on her back forcing her forward into Jason who punched her in the face. Jason could tell that Tim's movements were slowed and he was still recovering, so he made sure to stand between Tim and Ivy.

A dark shadow fell over them and Tim and Jason backed away from Ivy who was still lying on the ground. She was obviously weak and was still coughing continuously from whatever gas Tim had exposed her to. "I guess you should have thought about that before you used them to attack my brother. Now, you're going back to Arkham, Ivy."

She merely laughed as Dick hauled her up to her feet and began dragging her out of the building before she regained enough strength to use the rest of the plants in the building to her advantage. "Do you honestly think I only had that one greenhouse, that warehouse, and the few plants that you destroyed here? You'll never find all of the plants that I infused with venom, but if you let me go, I might be persuaded into telling you where they are."

Tim smirked as he stepped closer to her, obviously watching for any sudden movements. "Actually, keeping your plants alive in this weather takes a lot of resources, and those resources are pretty easy to track. In fact, we've already started. How long do you think it'll take us to find them, especially with Denise Emerson's help? Because, I've got news for you, Ivy; it isn't going to take long at all."

They walked outside to the sight of a small squad of Gotham police already surrounding the entrance of the botanical gardens. Jason turned toward Tim while Dick handed Ivy over. "You called them on your way here?"

Tim nodded as the two of them slunk back into the shadows, and made their way to a rooftop a block away, allowing Dick to deal with the police. "Yeah, who do you think is out tracking down the rest of those plants? I noticed a few hot spots when I originally hacked into the city's power grid and finished compiling the list while you guys made your way here, but when I heard your brilliant explosive plan, I decided to slip out while Alfred was busy."

Jason shook his head. "Yeah, well, I don't envy you when you get home."

"You shouldn't envy him now." Dick suddenly appeared behind them. "What were you thinking? You've only been conscious for a few hours. You shouldn't be out here in the cold fighting meta-humans."

Jason smirked enjoying the fact that, for once, it wasn't him on the other end of Dick's lecture. Tim, unlike Jason, had the good sense to at least appear sheepish. "Sorry, but your plan was rather flawed, and you needed someone to act as backup."

Dick threw his arms over both of their shoulders. "Whatever you say, little brother. Now, come on, it's time for all of us to get out of this weather."

Jason shrugged off Dick's arm. "Well, that's my cue to leave. You two have fun."

Dick grabbed a hold of him before Jason could get away. "And where do you think you're going?"

Jason pulled his arm out of Dick's grasp and backed away from him, ready to make a break for it if necessary. "Hey, case closed…problem solved…my work here is done." He turned to leave again before he remembered something and spun back around to face them. "Oh, and Goldie, don't forget to tell baby bird all about how he was poisoned by the demon brat."

Tim's eyes suddenly widened at Jason's words. "Wait, what? I was poisoned? By Damian? When? How?"

Dick rubbed the back of his head. "Um, I'll explain later."

Tim glared at him as he folded his arms across his chest. "No, you'll explain now."

Dick glanced over at Jason imploringly. "Uh, Jay, a little help?"

Jason threw his hands in the air. "Nope, not my problem. They're your little brothers." Before Dick could say anything else Jason leapt off the roof and ran in the other direction. He was definitely done with the entire family - for at least another week.

The End (for real this time)


End file.
